Keskustelujen arkisto

DAVID GERSTEIN:

You're right, I was actually responding to Harry's posting listing only one
of my works. As far as the D-codes, that will have to wait until the spare
moment. I overlooked "Wings"? Likely that was in the same block of lax
record-keeping from last quarter of last year. This will get included along
with the D-codes.

d> You noted that your M+D story "On the Ball" was censored.
d> Where? Are you simply referring to how only a very few Egmont
d> countries (or maybe even only ONE) printed it?

The Mickey-and-Donald-together story, "On the Ball," was NEVER printed to my
knowledge, even though the art was created. If you know otherwise (you
indicate you do), PLEASE get me or point me to the specifics.

d> I don't think that anyone on this list knew that Egmont had
d> commissioned a story with Mickey and Donald together, but then either
d> Disney-Europe, or Egmont themselves, chickened out and only allowed it
d> to see print in a very small market.

Well, for those who don't know, the story is this. The Hong Kong
affiliate was creating a Rubics-sphere with raised-relief, colored figures of
Mickey and Donald on opposing sides of the sphere. (I now have one.) They
contacted Egmont to see if a comic book could be created to be given away
with the sphere.

Byron saw that as a perfect opportunity to do a Donald-and-Mickey together
story, one where each character would retain their NORMAL character and
operate as foils for each other in an adventure-length 24-page story. He
obtained the necessary permission.

So we had to design the story to work as two 12-page stories as well, because
it would be printed in Denmark as a continued adventure over two sucessive
weeks. Also, we had to explain the garish cutaway tuxedos the Mickey and
Donald characters wear on the ball.

None of this was hard, of course, but what I rolled into everything was a
wonderfully subversive fairytale/folklore backstory wherein the rightful
female ruler of a mythic kingdom was wrongfully imprisoned by a dictatorial
dictator named Fwhee (phooey). Donald through his bumbling and Mickey
through his inventiveness manage to set things aright.

Now Myanmar, formerly Burma, was in exactly such straights. Their
democratically elected ruler had been under house arrest for some time. The
Nobel committee had awarded her the Peace Prize in hopes of turning a bit of
media spotlight on the country and its conditions. But all journalists are
baned from Myanmar, so no reports exist except what are smuggled out and
those were few and VERY far between. The strongman who rules is named Schwee.

I know the simple allegory we had set up would be obvious to the culture of
Asia, but I figured no one in the west would know what I was up to. This
acutally is the case. The reason the story wasn't printed is more prosaic.

When it came time to actually schedule the story for Danish release, Byron
sought to CONFIRM the earlier approval. This is unusal and the higher-ups
took note, and cancelled the book out of suspicion that something wasn't
kosher. So even though Byron didn't know what I was doing, and the higher-ups
had no idea Disney would strike a blow for Democracy, it never happened.
Sadly.

As I understand it, technically, no Disney character can appear to ENDORSE a
product and, the reasoning goes, the comic book packaged with the toy would
be a tacit endorsement. This despite the fact the toy has TWO CHARACTERS and
a Disney copyright molded into the surface, on the ball, as it were.

This was one of the great disappointments of my life.

Fortunately, the miltary regieme has recently released the rightful ruler
from her house arrest and the hope is that this signals some potential
raproachment with the will of the people of Myanmar, but pacifism in the face
of vicious thuggery is difficult to sustain, especially when the eyes of the
world are turned away and the darkness is so deep.

The director John Boorman has an (unfortunately mediocre) movie out recently,
seeking to shed a little light as well. I commend him for the effort.

There also is a "Free Burma" page on the web at North Carolina's Sunsite.

d> Actually, Dave, since Egmont HAS printed it, that means it's
d> available for Gladstone to use in D+M! I wouldn't mind seeing the
d> story myself, either...

As I said, I'm under the impression that they have not, but if somehow I'm
misunderstanding the circumstances, I think fans would LOVE to see these two
characters together. The story was written as entertainment first and
foremost. None of the behind the scenes alegory I just outlined is necessary
to know. If you can somehow get Gladstone to print this, I'll buy you a
drink!

... All that is required for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.
* Evaluation copy of Silver Xpress. Day # 53
--- via Silver Xpress V4.01 [NR]

HARRY:

No. I'm afraid I would say Scrooge, Donald, Huey, Dewey and Louie all have
equal billing in the stories I labeled DUCKS. As far as what BOOK title has
or will print them, I don't know.

... DCR -- http://www.wp.com/DCRawson/home.html
* Evaluation copy of Silver Xpress. Day # 53
--- via Silver Xpress V4.01 [NR]

JOHN:

> This is the third time I've sent this. For some reason it doesn't
> seem to be getting through to the mailing list.

Well actually, it's the third time that your list *is* published
here. Sometimes you can get your mail back with something like: "This
message could not be received by..." But that means that only one
(or a few) members didn't receive your message. (The reason why they
didn't receive it could be that they don't have email-access anymore
or that there were troubles with your message along the way.)

So, you *don't* need to resend your message if you get a bounce. You
can see that your message came through, by looking if your message is
send back by "Disney-Comics" (like it sends someone else's posting
to you that is send to the club).

BTW. The people who receive digests, of course *don't* get their mail
back as being published from "Disney-Comics". They'll have to wait for
the digest to see if it came through.

(But it also sometimes occurs that a message is missing from a
digest, while it indeed was published that day. Then you also *don't*
need to resend your message, just tell "Disney-Comics-Request" that
it was missing and then it will be in the next digest.)

Eh... Are you still there? ;-)

Greetings,

--- Daniel

On Wed, 27 Sep 1995, Don Rosa wrote:

> Anytime they have a 28 page story, they must put it in a
> special supplementary issue and it can only be used in a few countries like
> Norway and Denmark. Sweden and Finland and other countries will never see
> this 28-page "Avatar" story of mine.

Don't be too sure! There are sometimes supplementary issues in Swedish KA
as well. Your own Son of the Sun and (I think) Return to Xanadu were
published in such, so all hope is not lost for us Swedes.

/F

JOHN:

Yes, I received your list. Thanks! Yes, I received you list. Thanks! Yes,
I received your list. Thanks! 8-) 8-)

Unfortunately, I don't have the time anymore to make a new version
of the Database before my vacation. So this will have to wait till
I get back, which is October, 18th.

ALL:
I'm sorry you all have to wait that long, especially because there
will be a lot of new things in the Database:

- indexes of Gianfranco, John and Dave;
- a completely new Swedish index with data from Lars Olsson;
- there are more, smaller index files, with a legend of used abbreviations
in every file;
- indexes of a lot of recent Gladstone comics;
- the Dutch index has been improved a lot;
- ... (et cetera)

JOHN said:
> I hope you have a nice vacation. You are going to
> mail us all post cards--aren't you?

Thank you. If I can find an access to internet somewhere, I'll send
an electronic postcard.

(I hope I can survive the next 3 weeks without this mailing list!)
--Harry.

DAVID:
> I'd like to have a copy of the "Tempo" U$ gag for my Don Rosa
>collection.

No problem, David. I'll send you a separate email right after this.

DON (to David):
>Anytime they have a 28 page story, they must put it in a
>special supplementary issue and it can only be used in a few countries like
>Norway and Denmark.

To the best of your knowledge, will these 28 page stories be used
a) in the planned German "Don Rosa Library" albums?
b) by Gladstone?

The implication that we won't see these stories outside of Norway, Denmark and
maybe Sweden makes me shudder... Say it ain't so!

(to me):
>If anyone else here has an interest in seeing that $crooge gag I did for TEMPO,
>perhaps you could get them copies? Or make a copy of that page (at your own
>risk!).

Sure. Anyone who's interested should just send me email.

I'll just have to beg y'all for a little patience 'cause I'll be leaving next
Sunday for four weeks of vacation in the southwestern U.S. Any mail that should
arrive during that period will be taken care of in November, I promise!

--Lutz

DAVE:
I thought Byron had mentioned that the Hong Kong Egmont
affiliate DID print your "On the Ball," but that no one else did.
Maybe I'm wrong about this?
I also thought that Disney-Europe had not allowed the story
to appear in most places simply because it featured Mickey and Donald
together. It appears I was wrong about that, so maybe I was also
wrong about the story being published somewhere.
Maybe I'm wrong in general that Disney-Europe objects to
pairing MM and DD, at least on special occasions. MICKYVISION (Germany)
for Nov. 1988 featured an 8-page story of the ENTIRE Mouse and Duck
families together in search of treasure, drawn -- I believe -- by
Esteban. Very nicely drawn, but the cast of characters was simply too
big, so I can't say I really enjoy MM and DD's interaction. The story
WAS a D-coded story, done presumably for MM's 60th birthday although
that wasn't mentioned in the story.

MARK SEMICH:
Could you perhaps send me a copy of WDC&S 600? It's out this
week, is it not? (You, too, can have the Gottfredson painting book in
exchange.)

David Gerstein
<96dag at williams.edu>

--- Inkommet fr?n EXTR.QDTGREG +46 8 7192246 95-09-28 16:43

-> EXM4."DISNEY-COMICS..MINSK.DOCS.UU.SE"..INET..EDS
-: - - - - - - - - - - > MAIL USER (OTHER THAN MEMO)

Hi everybody,

I've been a member of this list for over a month now. The digests
are sent to my job, but I'm sad to say that I have little time to
read them. The discussion between David, Daniel and Harry about
different versions of "Santa's Stormy Visit", prodded me to
write this my first mail. Hopefully I can give you some of the
pieces in this CBL puzzle.

The hardcover B/W version of Barks' Xmas story is indeed redrawn
very badly. Another Rainbow had no good stats (as I think such
printing proofs are called) of this and a few other stories.

How come, then, that the CBL Xmas Giveaways in Color album had
much better versions of these stories? ? I know why. The
triggering event for this took place on Aug 10, 1992, outside San
Francisco.

I and four other Donaldists were invited to lunch by Geoffrey
Blum, Assistant Editor of Gladstone/Another Rainbow (he works for
them in his home). Among other things, we discussed the Carl
Barks Library and asked him why they had redrawn giveaways and
other stories. We were a bit surprised that the giveaways were
redrawn, because they had been published in very good versions
in Sweden five or six years ago. Geoffrey didn't know this! He
was very excited, of course. But he was also in quite a hurry to
find better stats, so we told him to contact Gutenberghus (now
Egmont). I think he gave Byron Erickson a call, and he did get
hold of the stats. I haven't compared the Swedish versions with
the CBL in Color versions, but I'll do it at home. I suppose
they are the same (probably also the same as the German version).

"Santa's Stormy Visit" was one of three giveaways published in
1987 for the first time in Sweden. It appeared in a special Xmas
album together with "New Toys" and "Donald's Best Christmas".
I don't know where the publisher got their fine stats from.

Finally, a few words about myself. I'm 35 years of age and live
in Stockholm. I've worked for over 6 years as a documentation and
information consultant. Before that I studied at the Stockholm
University and got a B.A. in English, Information and Cultural
Studies. Then I went on to post-graduate studies in English
linguistics. I still have almost a year of theoretical
studies left before I can start writing my thesis. Working full-
time at Ericsson Telecom doesn't help me get any closer to a
Ph.D.!

My interest in Disney comics and films goes a long way back. I
subscribed to the Swedish Disney weekly "Kalle Anka & C:o" in
1966-1979. I'm one of the founders of NAFS(k), the Swedish
Donaldist Society, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary next
year. Since a good many years I'm the society's Treasurer.

I regret that my job, my NAFS(k) duties and other interfering
interests have kept me from joining your fruitful discussions.
I'll try to keep in touch more often in the future!

Best wishes from Greger N?ss?n

(I don't know how my last name will look on your screens, but if
you're curious to know, the second letter is an a with a trema
(two dots) and the fifth letter is an e with an acute accent. The
stress is on the second syllable.)

start. I'm also one of the founders of NAFS(k), the Swedish
Donaldist Society, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary next
September. Since a good many years I'm the treasurer of NAFS(k).

I regret that my job, my NAFS(k) duties and other interfering
interests have kept me from joining your fruitful discussions.
I'll try to keep in touch more often in the future!

Best wishes from Greger N?ss?n

(I don't know how my last name will look on your screens, but if
you're curious to know, the second letter is an a with a trema
(two dots) and the fifth letter is an e with an acute accent. The
stress is on the second syllable.)